# Robin Williams - Not Funny **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928 "2009-01-19T02:34:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/41 "2009-01-19T19:19:10Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Back about 1979, when Robin was still best known as Mork, \*\*he had a pretty hilarious Lp entitled _Reality, What A Concept._ \*\*This gave me many happy hours of listening as a pre-teen. > > Since then, yeah, he mostly sucks. Seems like what he really wanted all along was just to be Taken Seriously as a Serious Actor…which, when you’re a gonzo standup comedian, basically means, “Time to sell out and become a schmalzy latter-day Danny Kaye, a defanged satyr figure beloved of The Industry and free of any disturbing creativity.” I still have his album entitled _Throbbing Python of Love_, which was pretty good. But I agree it’s gotten old by now. I think part of it is the familiarity–when he was new, it was exciting, but it hasn’t aged well. For instance, I wanted to add this to the movies that haven’t aged well thread, but didn’t, because it was about Mork and Mindy. But TVLand (I think) just ran a marathon for that show a few weeks ago, and holy crap that shit’s unfunny now. Talk about dated styles and juvenile, simplistic humor. Pam Dawber was hot though. But I watched a couple of episodes and just shook my head remembering how the kids in high school roamed the halls saying “Nanoo nanoo!” to each other. For his standup, it was energetic and therefore fresh by the standard of the day. Remember we were coming out of the 70s, and it wasn’t long before people like Dean Martin and Tom Jones had variety shows, with guests like Jack Benny and other (great, but) old-time stars. In _Throbbing Python of Love_, an audience member shouts out, “Do some improv!” Williams fires back, “What the fuck do you think the last fucking thirty minutes has been?!” in a way that makes the rest of the audience howl. So yeah, I certainly thought he was funny when he was in his comedy prime, but now it’s old and dated. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/42 "2009-01-19T19:54:58Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Actually, he’s quite funny. But you have to be intelligent to get it. 😉 Then I’m the world’s biggest idiot. Edit: Oops. I forgot I already replied to this. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/43 "2009-01-19T20:14:06Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > Then I’m the world’s biggest idiot. > > Edit: Oops. I forgot I already replied to this. LMAO!!! Williams was funny in the 70s. I enjoy him as a dramatic/comic actor now. But I agree that his style of stand up doesn’t work so well today because it’s been done to death and the world has moved on. Steve Martin did himself a favor by moving away from his cutting-edge style of comedy while he was still hot and into acting ( **The Jerk** was a perfect transition IMHO). And Cosby…well, Cosby never did comedy. Cosby did something else far more advanced. I just got done digitizing some of his stuff from the 60s…it still works. But yeah, Williams was good in his day. Like Howie Mandell, Richard Pryor, Dave Gardener… ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/44 "2009-01-19T21:30:07Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Robin Williams was very, very funny for a couple of years in the late '70s, although admittedly he’s been coasting on the rep created then for the 30 years since. So “is not” I’ll give you, but “and never has been” is just wrong. Agreed. His improv was lightning fast and in the best tradition of Jonathan Winters. It got old, but then many comedians rolled into suckage in a matter of a few years. Few can keep the edge for very long. Case in point: Whoopi Goldberg, who was edgy and mean when she started, and whose image on screen now makes me want to open a vein. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/45 "2009-01-19T21:38:57Z")
He’s talented, but he’s one of those annoying celebrities who feels like he always has to be “on”. I wish he could just be Robin Williams every once in awhile, instead of being Robin Williams™ all the time. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/46 "2009-01-19T21:41:04Z")
> [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > Huh? > > The Night Listener? > Bicentennial Man? > Jakob the Liar? > Patch Adams? > What Dreams May Come? Those films are of varying quality (“Patch Adams” was an absolute peice of shit) but there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with Williams’s performances in them. He did about as well as circumstances could have allowed. Nobody could have made “Patch Adams” not suck. And you left out his best movies. I agree with the OP that he’s really quite tiresome and unfunny; aside from a few moments - the very early part of his standup career and a few parts of “Aladdin” - his shtick is the same old manic same old, seen a thousand times before and it hasn’t been funny in years and years. But he is a perfectly good, even very good, dramatic actor. But comics usually peak young and then suck old. George Carlin’s funny bone was dead for years before he was. Dennis Miller hasn’t been funny for 15 years, maybe 20. Denis Leary’s getting tiresome, though to his credit he’s made a transition to other things. Eddie Murphy’s act got bad really fast. Williams’s pattern is common. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/47 "2009-01-19T21:45:56Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Seconded. But what are we going to do about it? Ha! ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/48 "2009-01-19T22:04:36Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Dennis Miller hasn’t been funny for 15 years, maybe 20. Dennis Miller was never funny, unless you call being a smarmy, overly-affected, pretentious douche funny. Go ahead Dennis, call yet another person you’re trying to condescend to ‘babe’, you Richard Belzer school of comedy reject. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/49 "2009-01-19T22:51:43Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Dennis Miller was never funny, unless you call being a smarmy, overly-affected, pretentious douche funny. > > Go ahead Dennis, call yet another person you’re trying to condescend to ‘babe’, you Richard Belzer school of comedy reject. But he smirks and laughs at his own jokes – how can he **not** be funny? And his “rants” – those elaborately-scripted, exactly-the-opposite-of-a-real-extempore-explosion – aren’t those the definition of comedy gold? Next thing you’ll be telling me that his shoehorning obviously-prepared pop culture references into his Monday Night Football commentary at random, almost always completely inappropriate moments – was something other than the product of Comedy’s Greatest Mind. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/50 "2009-01-20T15:26:04Z")
When I was 8 and Mork & Mindy aired all my classmates thought he was hilarious. I could sit through his riffing as Mork and not crack a smile once. And he’s still doing the same riffing today. And I still haven’t cracked a smile. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmundex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19adc/32.png) [@Sigmundex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmundex)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/51 "2009-01-20T15:58:31Z")
\>I think he has moments. I was watching a DVD of his recently that my boyfriend owns, and he did this bit about the Crusades, where (I’m paraphrasing from memory) he said the residents of Jerusalem reacted to the Christians by saying “Hide the women and the children and the number zero!” That bit cracked me up.\< Bastard! I used that bit in homeroom, 1981. I should have checked the closet for him. But seriously, I agree completely. I don’t get it. If he spent more than 5 minutes in my house, I’d be rolling my eyes at everyone who wasn’t him, and I’d say I needed to go get more beer at the store or something, just to get away. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928/52 "2009-01-22T08:23:15Z")
> [@What Exit?](#): > > So am I the only Doper that enjoyed his two hour interview on "“Inside the Actors Studio”? Nope, I loved it! That’s what I was thinking of when I saw this thread, but couldn’t remember the name of the show. > [@Cisco](#): > > He’s talented, but he’s one of those annoying celebrities who feels like he always has to be “on”. I wish he could just be Robin Williams every once in awhile, instead of being Robin Williams™ all the time. I always got the impression that that, if anything, was the real Robin Williams. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robin-williams-not-funny/481928.md?page=2)